Every other Wednesday night on KSFR 101.1 is one hour of pure youth. That's right — a radio show run completely by youth courtesy of Santa Fe's very own Youth Media Project.

"Youth media project teaches the craft of digital story telling for a socially responsible world," said Judy Goldberg, the director of the Youth Media Project.

"We are an educational service in that we develop curricula with education to integrate into what they are already doing as means to amplify and bring out into the community youth voice," Goldberg went on to describe the second mission of the project. "In tandem with being an educational service, we are also broadcasters and produce for broadcasting."

What's unique about this production team is that it is entirely composed of youth.

"It is youth-driven and is completely by youth and for youth," said Adriana Torres, a senior at Monte Del Sol and a member of the Youth Media Project. "All the youth that participate are generally looking toward a future involved in media — it's really an education process and is completely volunteer."

What makes the show so different is they try and push the boundaries of radio and the arts. "We get really artistic with it and try not to focus on the traditional forms of radio. We try and do things like radio drama, and get kids that are interested in art and acting to participate," Torres said.

Her point was underscored by Goldberg, who emphasized the connection between the radio and the educational mission of the project.

"All these shows are basically the funnel of the educational work we do," Goldberg said. She went on to provide examples such as having the Santa Fe Indian's School Spoken Word team as frequent guests on the show to having Santa Fe High School's radio drama students perform pieces they wrote for the program.

Goldberg said one example is United World College using one of the shows as the culmination of a class study on war, peace and politics. The show included reflections from the class and a panel discussion on how peace would be possible.

Their theme — for and by youth — has led the project to reach out to the community and pursue relationships with youth radio stations across the U.S. and as far as Sierra Leon, Africa.

The Youth Media Project also is starting a partnership with Generation Next to bring local youth stories published in The New Mexican's teen section to the radio.

"We are just trying to give youth a voice — that's the goal, and in order to do that we expanded our horizons by taking partnerships with organizations like Generation Next," Torres said.

In addition to Youth Media Project's two major focuses during the school year, it will be hosting a summer radio intensive that will last two weeks and "teach students practical skills in storytelling, interviewing in their community, and digital recording and editing," according to a news release. The cost is $250 (with some scholarships available) for the program, which will be held Aug. 2-13 at the College of Santa Fe. For more information, visit www.youthmediaproject.org.

"The full extension of this work," Goldberg said of the summer intensive and the Youth Media Project, "is that students find areas of interest that they gravitate to, and start to create their own pieces around it. Those pieces are heard on the radio, and the ultimate (result) is they are utilized to spark dialogue and people taking action."

Stay tuned to KSFR 101.1 7 p.m. Wednesdays to catch Youth Media Project shows.

Alex Wirth is enjoying summer. You can reach him at AlxWirth@gmail.com.